We were priveleged to have had a face to face meeting with Director Michaels of OSHA earlier this year.
We brought up the topic of harsh regulatory tone.
Director Michaels characterized the agency as ‘small and needing strong means to remain effective.’
We congratulated him on the agency’s success at portraying themselves as aggressive regulators.
The OSHA website has this to say:
“OSHA is a small agency; with our state partners we have approximately 2,200 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the nation – which translates to about one compliance officer for every 59,000 workers.”
Before getting too sympathetic, a review of some facts might be in order:
Penalties doubled!
Actually average proposed penalties are up by 102%
Both Bark and Bite are big! OSHA statistics reveal that the average proposed penalty for a Serious violation doubled from $1,053 in 2010 to $2,132 in 2011- a 102% increase!
OSHA Budget is up!
FY 2011: $573,096,000
FY 2012: $583,386,000
Although by Washington DC standards a little over half a billion dollars and an increase of $10.3 million dollars probably doesn’t seem like much money at all.
According to Sherman and Howard Law Blog
“Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, recently stated that the higher penalties are still too low when compared to other regulatory agencies. He defended the higher penalties as an important tool in OSHA’s overall efforts to increase enforcement. In our view, this increase comes as no surprise and employers can expect even higher penalties in 2012 and beyond. “
OSHA seems to be taking this size thing to heart!
Since higher penalties remain an important tool and are still too low, and since OSHA cannot practically visit all 7 million workplaces it makes sense for employers to proactively address OSHA compliance.
When OSHA arrives, they will be itchin’ to do a great job.
The first place to start would be how does a small agency prioritize its enforcement resources?
Inspection Priorities!
1. Imminent danger situations—hazards that could cause death or serious physical harm— receive top priority.
2. Fatalities and catastrophes—incidents that involve a death or the hospitalization of three or more employees—come next.
3. Complaints—allegations of hazards or violations also receive a high priority.
4. Referrals of hazard information from other federal, state or local agencies, individuals, organizations or the media receive consideration for inspection.
5. Follow-ups—checks for abatement of violations cited during previous inspections—are also conducted by the agency in certain circumstances.
6. Planned or programmed investigations— inspections aimed at specific high-hazard industries or individual workplaces that have experienced high rates of injuries and illnesses— also receive priority.
For more on these inspection priorities consult the OSHA Fact Sheet link below.
Back to Basics!
Train your people in
- Personal Protective Equipment,
- Lockout- Tagout,
- Right To Know Haz Comm,
- Slips Falls Tripping Hazards,
- Machine Guarding,
- Powered Industrial Trucks ,
- Electrical- Wiring and General,
You can intelligently manage your risk of OSHA Enforcement and penalties by asking yourself these three questions and then doing something about them:
- Do you have a process for managing safety?
- Is it followed?
- Is it effective?
As employers we have a general duty to maintain a safe workplace. Let’s take our duty seriously. You know the folks from OSHA will.
Resources:
OSHA Employers Rights originally posted last October here
Posted by speakingofprecision 
OSHA, Noise, And Your Precision Machining Shop
December 8, 2010Summary: A change in the interpretation of the word ‘FEASIBLE’ by OSHA could cause all shop owners whose shops noise level exceeds 85 dB to be REQUIRED by OSHA under this new definition to install expensive engineering or administrative controls to abate the noise to levels below the action level. PPE could no longer be acceptable as the sole means of addressing noise exposure in our shops.
Action You Need to Take:
1) Determine the noise level in your shop to see if it exceeds 85dB TWA.
2) Determine cost to install noise guarding on machines necessary to abate noise levels to below 85dB (engineering control)
3) Determine how many machines must be taken out of service at a time to prevent the noise level from exceeding the 85dB level ( administrative control )
4) Perform a business case analysis to see if your company can remain in business if this change to the definition becomes law, requiring you to purchase sound dampening or reduce production.
5) Document the cost to comply, loss of jobs, and any reduction in competitiveness, capacity or other issue that is a result.
6) Send to Miles Free mfree@pmpa.org so that I can include in PMPA’s formal comments.
7) Send a letter to the Docket for comments on this proposed change in interpretation as well as one to your congressman and please copy PMPA.
Submit comments at http://www.regulations.gov. Individuals who mail or deliver comments must submit three copies to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-2010-0032, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210. Submissions not longer than 10 pages may be faxed to 202-693-1648
Don’t delay.
PMPA and other metalworking associations requested, and received an extension on the Comments deadline so that we could obtain facts needed to properly assess the consequences of this new interpretation. Comments are now due by March 21, 2011. We need your facts to make our case!
We need your data now to effectively represent you on this potentially shop closing issue.
All data that we have seen from Member shops so far has shown that these shops will need to add sound dampening equipment.
Links: Extension letter:
Notice of Proposed Reinterpretation:
PMPA Extension Request Letter:
The shop (and machininst jobs) you save may be your own.